Laptop won't boot

[SuperDave]

Hi. I'm trying to troubleshoot my brother's Acer laptop. He said he turned it off one evening and when he turned it back on the screen remains black although the fans are running and the light is on so I don't think it's a problem with the power supply. I immediately thought that the problem was with the video card so I connected the laptop to my tv with a HDM1 cable and still no picture. Is there anything else I can check?

[patio]

Which Win ver. ? ?

[Mark.]

HDMI connections in my experience are very hit and miss, so in case you just got unlucky, has the laptop got a VGA output port as well?How old is the unit?
in case the back light in the LCD has gone, try shining a torch into the bottom left of screen after it has been given enough time to boot into Windows, aim at where the Start button should be and see if you can see any 'ghost' images.  you may have to hold the torch 'just so'.

[DaveLembke]

If you see LED acticity form hard drive as if its booting normal but no display then I agree that backlight may be burned out. If no LED Hard Drive activity at and after boot but fans running, then i would check into possibility of a RAM stick that is loose and needs to be reseated. Additionally I have had a CMOS battery that is weak cause my one laptop to black screen and act booted with fans running but no hard drive activity and when replacing the confirmed weak cmos battery it booted right up and no problems since.

[SuperDave]

Which Win ver. ? ?

I'm not sure but I think Windows 7 upgraded to 10

has the laptop got a VGA output port as well?How old is the unit?

No VGA output port and it was manufactured in 2016
I will open it to see that nothing is loose. Will also test the backlight.

[SuperDave]

The strangest thing happened tonight. I started to troubleshoot the laptop, connected to my tv with a HDM1 cable, connected an external drive with a rescue disk and the laptop boot with no problem. I turned it off and re-booted again with no problem. The computer gods must be looking down on me.

[patio]

 

[Mark.]

great news - bullet dodged.
take them when they come, cause you know what's around the corner...